Box of Life

"He likes it! Hey Mikey!" If you are old enough, you remember this catchphrase from a Life cereal commercial. If not, click here: http://youtu.be/vYEXzx-TINc . LIfe has always been one of my favorite, in fact I’m sure there is a box (or two) right now in our pantry.  If you had a box of Life cereal and someone asked what was in the box, you would say that there is Life in the box. There is Life in a box of Life cereal.

Once upon a time, there were prizes in the boxes of Life cereal.  They buried the prize deep into the box.  I remember opening the box, tilting and bulging the box until the prize was visible, then reach in to extract it, without having to eat the cereal.

When you come right down to it, the ark of the covenant (or testament) was a box, an elaborate box made of gold plated shttim wood.  The box had some kind of gold crown or molding (or, as I like to call it, gold crown molding) going around it.  This elaborate box had an even more elaborate lid.  The lid was a slab of pure gold.  Attached to the lid of pure gold were two cherubim figures also made of pure gold.  

The function of any box is to hold things.  A cereal box holds cereal (and once upon a time, a buried prize) and the ark was to hold Aaron’s rod that budded, a golden pot of manna, tablets of stone, and, possibly, a copy of the law (in scroll form).   

As a response to Korah’s rebellion (Numbers16), God verified His selection of Aaron as the high priest (Numbers 17).  A representative of each tribe carved the tribe’s name on a stick and the sticks were place in the tabernacle. God confirmed His selection by having Aaron’s stick bud. Just to not leave any doubt, Aarons stick not only budded, but had flowers and mature fruit (Number 17:8). Just like the lampstand of the tabernacle, three stages of life were on the stick of Aaron. This rod, with the three signs of life, was put in the box.   

Manna was the means of sustaining life while the Israelites wandered in the wilderness.  A portion of manna was put in a gold pot and that pot was put in the box.

The scroll and the tablets represents the Law and were put in the box.  

If someone asked what was in the box, one could say that there is law and life in the box.

Jesus is the box.  The gold reminds us of His royalty and the wood speaks of His humanity.  Jesus held the law perfectly and ...in him was life, and the life was the light of men. John 1:4

The ark was a box of life, and there is a hidden prize. And the prize?  Sometime before the ark entered into the holy place of the newly completed everything but the 2 tables of stone were removed from the box. One of the missing things was the golden pot of manna.

In the letter that was dictated by Jesus to the church at Pergamos , He promises To him that overcomes, to him will I give of the hidden manna. Could this be the same manna?

Now within the veil, enjoying God,
Manna, law of life, and budding rod;
Christ Himself, the ark, is our abode—
 Hallelujah!

Source: http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/1208#ixzz1yTY8Rux2

Worth His (or Her) Weight in Gold

Are you worth it? Are you worth your weight in gold? As I write this, pure gold is $1189 per Troy ounce. There are 12 Troy ounces in a Troy pound. And there are 0.822853347 US pounds (also known as the avoirdupois weight system) in a Troy pound. I’ll save you the math. If my math is correct, one hundred US pounds of pure gold is worth a bit over $1.7 Million.

The golden candlestick (or lampstand) weighed one talent and it and its base was made from a single chunk of pure gold (Ex. 25:31-9). It should be noted that not all gold used in the construction of the tabernacle was pure gold. A talent weighed about 100 US pounds, give or take, depending on the reference you use for the conversion factor. This one chunk of pure gold worth $1.7 million was beaten into the the lampstand. Beaten, not melted down and poured into a mold.

So where did this one chunk of gold come from? Well, it came from the free will offering that God told Moses to collect (Ex. 25:1-2) for the construction of the tabernacle. This was a collection of gold, and silver, and copper, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and byssus, and goats' [hair], and rams' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins; and acacia-wood; oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil, and for the incense of fragrant drugs; onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate. (Ex. 25:3-7)

Notice that gold is the first thing on the list. The actual collection is recorded for us ten chapters later in Exodus 35. According to this passage, gold came from both men and women; every one who was of willing heart brought nose-rings, and earrings, and rings, and bracelets, all kinds of utensils of gold: every man that waved a wave-offering of gold to Jehovah.

So, where did this gold come from? Weren’t they slaves in Egypt? Wherefore the gold? Just before they left Egypt, God told them that every woman shall ask of her neighbour, and of her that is the inmate of her house, utensils of silver, and utensils of gold, and clothing; and ye shall put [them] on your sons and on your daughters, and shall spoil the Egyptians.

Speak now in the ears of the people, that they ask every man of his neighbour, and every woman of her neighbour, utensils of silver and utensils of gold. (Ex. 11:2)

So after decades of being slaves, the Israelites were finally getting wages that were long due them. It is as if wages were being withheld all their lives and are now being paid, all at once, in one night. So as they left Egypt, they carried with them gold that they got.

Since the gold was one chunk taken from an offering, it must have come from one person. That one person, on passover night, was handed a utensil of pure gold weighing 100 pounds and worth $1.7 million dollars. That one slave must have been very valuable to the Egyptians to get something like that in back wages.

What is your worth? If someone were to pay you what you are worth to them in gold, pure gold, would you get 100 pounds of the stuff? You have been bought and you are worth much more.

....ye have been redeemed, not by corruptible [things, as] silver or gold, from your vain conversation handed down from [your] fathers, but by precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, [the blood] of Christ, foreknown indeed before [the] foundation of [the] world, but who has been manifested at the end of times for your sakes, who by him do believe on God, who has raised him from among [the] dead and given him glory, that your faith and hope should be in God. 2 Peter 1:18-21

You are worth it…